Added September 5, 2006Mission #2
For example, going back to the previous reference to customer service. Let’s assume your mission statement has something about customers. Your goal as the interviewer, is to discover (remember this is a Discovery Process) all you can about the candidate’s service orientation.
You might want to ask this question:
“What does customer service mean, to you?” Note the comma after the word mean. As the interviewer you need to use your tonality properly. In this case you would want to pause briefly and then accentuate the “to you” phrase. This sends a message to the interviewee that you want to know what it means to them and not a textbook answer.
You will need to measure their response against your mission statement to determine if their belief is consistent with your culture. Also, you will need to probe deeper to get more information about their service orientation. It would be helpful to ask them:
“Please tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult customer, whom you eventually satisfied.” As they answer listen closely to the behaviors they describe they used in this situation and determine if those behaviors are consistent with your mission statement. If you are not satisfied, you can probe deeper by asking, “Now, tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult customer whom you could not satisfy.” The fact that someone had a customer they could not satisfy is not a problem. A real problem is someone who tells you they have always satisfied every customer. That is a major red flag.
